WWE WrestleMania 32: The Roman Reigns Dilemma

Roman Reigns made his return on WWE Raw, and the fans really couldn’t have been any more apathetic.

Imagine the scene. One of your biggest stars is out after his heel opponent takes him out with a brutal beating. For a few weeks, the guy who handed out the beating tells everyone that he can’t, and won’t be beaten. Then the injured guy comes back on your flagship tv show….and the crowd couldn’t care less. At a time when you need the fans behind your next big babyface hope, they couldn’t be any more against him, and that is worrying.

In a couple of weeks time, we will be presented with a WrestleMania main event of WWE World Heavyweight Champion Triple H against number one contender Roman Reigns. It could turn out to be the most hated ‘Mania main event of all time. Your baby face finally gets the title back from the man who took it from him, the man who was the (storyline) reason he had to get a legitimate surgery on his nose and the crowd boos him out of the building. If that doesn’t set alarm bells ringing for Vince McMahon, then nothing ever will.

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Roman Reigns’ appearance on Raw was the first time we’ve seen him in a few weeks. He came out onto the ramp after Triple H had beaten Dolph Ziggler, and eventually made his way down to the ring and attacked the champion. Reigns spent the next few minutes beating Triple H down before they ended up backstage. Triple H was busted open and ended up with blood running down his face, and still you could hear boos coming from the crowd in attendance. At a time when the crowd was meant to be well behind the vengeance-seeking favourite, the boos still reigned down on him. Reigns eventually stopped his attack on the Champion, when his nephews The Usos, Jack Swagger and Mark Henry managed to persuade him to stop the beating. Still the crowd wouldn’t get behind him.

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The million dollar question right now is how can the WWE get the WWE Universe to not boo the babyface Reigns? How can you make the WWE Universe have the reaction you want them to have for Reigns? Right now to stop the main event of WrestleMania becoming an absolute mess, you need to sow the seeds for the beginnings of a Roman Reigns heel turn. WWE has spent the best part of the last twelve months trying to get Reigns over as a massive babyface and the crowd has booed him on nearly every occasion. His great friend Dean Ambrose has played second fiddle to him for the majority of the time but has managed to get massively over with the fans. During the main event of the recent WWE Network Special Roadblock, Ambrose challenged Triple H for the title and he was so over with the crowd it was unreal. If you look at the reactions that Ambrose and Reigns receive, the contrast is startling.

On Raw, when Jimmy and Jey Uso were attempting to calm him down, you should have had him shove one of them away and continue to beat on Triple H. When they attempted to pull him away again he should have hit one of them. With Jimmy or Jey down the other Uso attends to him with a shocked look on his face. Then Swagger tries to stop him, and Reigns hits him with the tv monitor that he’s attacking Triple H with. The crowd reacts to that big time, as Reigns continues to beat down Triple H. With the champion managing to get a couple of shots in and escape from Reigns, your challenger shows his frustration and looks shocked at how he reacted to his real life family The Usos.

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On the following weeks show, we see Reigns in the ring and he talks about how he’s willing to do anything to beat Triple H and get that title back. He says that he’s not sorry for what happened the previous week, if The Usos or anyone else gets in his way then he’ll do whatever he has to to get his hands on Triple H. The crowd starts to slowly get behind him, but he needs to keep the heelish stuff going. With Triple H in the ring, he has to come out and attack him without any warning. When Triple H is backstage you have Reigns watching from a distance, before hitting him from behind with a chair when nobody is expecting it. With only a couple of weeks to go till ‘Mania, you need to sow the seeds for a heel Reigns to become the most important guy in the company.

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Right now the WrestleMania main event will be a decent match, but the crowd will kill the night with their reaction to having Reigns forced down their throats. The WWE seems hell-bent on bringing their Roman Reigns vanity project to fruition, with the former Shield man in the unenviable position of being the man who Vince and company have hung their hats on for greatness. If you want the crowd to eventually get behind him as the next John Cena, he needs to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania as a heel. It’s not too late to have that happen, it may just take a massive change of heart from the men in control of the WWE.

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If Reigns wins the title and the crowd boos him out of the building at WrestleMania, that could be a massive nail in the coffin for the career of Roman Reigns. If WWE continues to push Reigns in the same vein that they currently are, the fans will only continue to boo him and that is most definitely not Best for Business.